Advancements in electronic communication have resulted in the ability to deliver data to different types of devices in a variety of environments. For example, content providers are now able to provide content to typically stationary viewing and/or computing devices, mobile devices, etc. Content may comprise, for example, multimedia data (e.g., text, audio, images, video, or combinations thereof). While the ability to consume content may be very attractive to device users, there may be some apprehension for content providers to make their content available in certain situations. For example, the content providers may employ digital rights management (DRM) to ensure that their content is only consumed by entitled users (e.g., the users that have purchased a copy of the content or at least purchased the right to consume the content on a limited basis). DRM was more straightforward when physical media was used to deliver the content, however, the advent of consumption via wired or wireless electronic delivery has made protecting the rights of content owners somewhat more problematic.
For example, simple username/password authentication may readily be circumvented by unlicensed users. More secure DRM schemes may attempt to improve security by linking the right to consume to a more permanent fixture, such as a device identification provided by a hardware-based (e.g., firmware) or secure software-based source. These DRM systems rely upon the permanence of device-based identifications that cannot be duplicated, impersonated, etc. However, since the license is linked to the purchasing device, the actual consumption of the content is also bound to the purchasing device. This limitation may eliminate the ability for rightful users to consume licensed content on various other devices (e.g., mobile devices). The inability to consume licensed content on other devices may render the device-ID based content delivery model unattractive to users, and thus, unprofitable for content providers.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.